Sweepstake, Todd’s, Milton Country Park, 12th May 2019

Sweepstake, Todd’s, Milton Country Park, 12th May 2019

John Pope had kindly arranged with the Park Rangers to allow us free parking and so our thanks go to all concerned for this consideration. He also provided club books to those who’d been unable to get to Frank’s.

Eleven turned up for this first match of the new season including Mr Tinca who was employing distraction tactics by sporting what looked like Kevin Sander’s shorts, they were baggy, split up the back and showed his knobbly white knees to perfection, enough to distract anyone!

A new face appeared among us, Tony Carr, who with his chunky trolley wheels loaded with gear looked set to do business. Indeed it wasn’t long into the match when word went around that he had netted a 5 lb tench and a 2 lb rudd. I seem to remember that last season we had a new boy join who soon earned himself the nickname Mr Tinca and who ended up winning the championship!

With bright sunshine, clear water and preceding low temperatures most opted to target the rudd, even though there was no sign at all of them ‘topping’ and the masses of floating weed would make presentation at any depth difficult. Indeed John Reed could be heard muttering for most of the match as he tried to clear the lake surface using his waggler as a rake.

As predicted the earlier swims, ended with the best weights, with the one exception of new boy Tony near the far end who managed a respectable 9 lb 11 oz to come third. His net included a 5 lb tench and a 2 lb 1½ oz rudd. Mr Tinca with 16 lb 1 oz just pipped Jason with 15 lb 10 oz, which included a 2 lb tench, and Ken with 7 lb 8 oz just pushed Jamie with 7 lb into 5th. We won’t mention Trevor, Adam and Mike on the highest pegs who couldn’t manage 2 lb between them!

Our next match is at Mepal, again a sweepstake, with all fish including carp counting in full. Historically this has been a very productive match and a good turn out is expected so please remember to book early with Trevor to ensure a place.

Ian Claydon